AuthorTopic: Pan (Read 5529 times)

A Pan thread wouldn't hurt here. I may have already posted the first part here before somewhere, can't remember.

Pan is all. Pan means "everything". And everything can suddenly become very real. Very powerful. Very Dread. Pan is old. Ancient. He is older than the Olympians, whom he is sometimes counted among. But he never had much time for those who dwelled on Olympus, preferring his wooded groves, and his Nymphs and Satyrs for company. Older than the God of Moses, who hates Him, and would kill him if such a thing were possible. Old as the caves where his horned visage was first painted on walls of limestone. His presence is everywhere and still, the woods are alive with the smell of his coming.He is overwhelming. All encompassing. And he is here. He is, in this sense, the Opener. The Keeper of the Gate. To pass into Arcadia and seek the blessing of any who dwell within, you must first pass the test of the Opener. His awe full Mystery. One that the Christians make much of. The Krishnas know it too. So do the Moslems. It is not a thing of Religion though, it is a thing of Man. The smallest child can manage it as well as the mightiest Warrior.In some mythologies, you have to pass a Sphinx . Or some Old Women. In others, a Giant. In the Old Testament, he is an Angel, with a Sword of Fire. But I'm using the Mythos that has been revealed to me, and my Opener is Pan. And Pan is all.The unprepared, who might stray upon him, might well be ravaged, or cracked before they find their way back. The Fearô will have it's way with them. It must be sublimated somehow before you can pass. There is no other way.But the Seeker must risk everything in his Quest. They don't call it the Siege Perilous for nothing. You cannot come thinking through this Door. How do you emerge, unbroken from the Panic, what must you learn before you can receive the Grace of the Opener?

The Fearô is the test. It lives in the dark places that we don't much care to look. Pan opens those places, so that we cannot look away. And our first reaction to what lives there is Fear. We can struggle, we can fight to overcome that fear, (And many fine myths and legends have arisen from that struggle) but that is neglecting to examine the nature of Fear itself.

Fear is a spur, to remind us there is danger in the unknown.It is not the enemy, so why fight it? Make what is unknown, known. The Fearô is Pan's divine fear, his Panic. He opens, and we see. What we see is our own dark reflection. And until we embrace that darkness, we are but men. I

n response to The Fearô, Christianity teaches supplication, demands obedience, and worship of God, through Christ. But they have confounded the path by making the lesson the goal. That fear, with all it's attendant Devils and Demons becomes the enemy, and it is only through Jesus that it can be overcome. The whole faith of Christianity rests largely upon that one single theme.

Pan turns you round 180 degrees, so The Fearô must be examined. He does not bring the Devils or the Bugbears. When we examine them in his light, (Partly why Pan sometimes equates as Lucifer) we see those fears are just our own insecurities, fed by generations of preferred ignorance. Divided from our 'better', civilised selves, they found our dark corners, and the corners being dark, played on our fear to remain hidden.

To coax such things from the darkness is anathema to enlightenment. But to examine those things in the light of understanding is onwards and upwards. And to embrace them, as part of ourselves is to accept our own capacity for divinity. That's what the whole story about the apple and the garden is about. For the knowledge of good and evil truly made us as Gods. So Man could no longer dwell in Arcadia.

We were "cut off" from entering by an Angel with a Sword of fire. Christianity teaches atonement for that "Sin". In the vain hope that we will be re-admitted after death. Submit, submit, submit to God. And that perhaps, if we are properly penitent, God will allow us to bathe in his Grace. Well good luck with that, all you who follow the Christos. It's a trick. The true path is in there, but your Church turns you away. It's true, 'Man' cannot walk again, "Et in Acrcadia, ego". Not as the divided being he has become. First he must embrace, own and accept those things in the darkness. They are us. Of us. And to us they must return if we are to attain The State of Grace that is Arcadia.

Not through penitence, or supplication. We must utterly reject the very concept of "Sin". There is no crime against God for which we must atone. That is a lie. Oh, the Flaming Sword is there, in one form or another, it is the divider, the gateway. It creates the shadows that we so fear to look at. And by doing so, keeps Man divided from his Divine self.

The one theme that you might be surprised was left in by the Christians, is Submission. Submission is the correct attitude when confronted by The Fearô. We can fight it, and fight it most heroically. But we cannot win, for ultimately, it is against ourselves we fight. The Fearô is there to teach us one thing. Confronted with a foe we cannot vanquish, not because it is so much mightier than we are, but because by fighting at all, it is ourselves we seek to destroy.

And we can no longer flee, because the darkness has been thrown back by our state of Panic, there is only one relevant option, and that is SUBMISSION. Not the Christian Submission 'To God'. That doesn't deal with the division. Not Submission in any Martial sense. What Pan 'opens' you up to, is your dark self. YOU. To Submit here, is no defeat. Because there is no Enemy there to fear. No God to bend the knee to. Just ourselves. Only through SUBMISSION can we accept our own Divinity.

Not (As the Christians would have it) by living on our knees, attempting to atone for some non-existent Sin. Just by just simply submitting to those parts of ourselves from which we have become divided. By not fighting them / ourselves. There is no defeat here, and if you are looking for a victory, there is also none. What there is, is Grace. When I first was shown The Fearô, I fought and fought. The more I fought, the stronger it got. The stronger it got, the more I feared it. I thought if I could somehow escape it, then I would not be utterly consumed, and consigned to whatever Hell I had prepared for myself.It was only when I stopped resisting, and learned to SUBMIT that I understood. As soon as I SUBMITTED, all of The Fearô just vanished into nothing, and was replaced by His. Good. Grace. I laughed at the simplicity of it until tears streamed down my face. If life (and there's a lot to said for this viewpoint) was some huge joke, then it was like hearing the punchline for the first time. I had, through submission, attained (albeit, briefly) Christos. I was bathed in Grace, and knew what it really was we have been hiding from for so long. We were never really 'expelled' from The Garden. We just stopped seeing it because our Fathers bought into the idea of "Sin" so long ago. That is what created the gulf between us, and Godhead. But it's ALL around us ALL the time. (PANoramic) In ALL things. (PANdemic) I had passed through that place of all Demons (PANdemonium) and been bathed in healing Grace (PANacea) At every turn, PAN revealing, PAN restoring. The perfume of PAN pervading. He asks for no acts of worship, no bended knee. And the only sacrifice he demands, is that we release that Fear we took so long ago, and nurtured like a child. In return, we remember that we were made in God's image. That we ate of the Fruit that made us as Gods. And that restored in this way we have every right to enter Arcadia on our feet, as worthy as any we might meet there.And Pan is the opener of the ways. Has been for as long as man first began to see beyond the moment.

Pan, for all his instantly recognisable storybook profile, is a tricky one to find origins for. I know he was rather uncomfortably counted as one of the Olympians, but I think anyone with more than a nodding acquaintance with classical Mythology must realise that Pan is nothing like them. He never (As far as I know) even went to Mt Olympus. He stayed in his wild places, his groves and glades. And had as little to do with the Olympians as possible.

I half recall some beef he may have had with Apollo over some Cattle or something, and there was the Pipe thing, where he made some deal with Apollo (I think) so that he got all the acclaim for inventing music. But the tale was quite clear that Pan had the music first. Kind of a "OK. OK. Take the bloody music, go and be Zeus' golden boy. Do what you like, run back to your crazy ass Family, up your Mountain, just leave me out of it" springs to mind.

He clearly didn't fit in with the scheming, plotting, bickering powerplay stuff that was being thrashed out up the Hill. He had no interest in the Olympians. Which suggests he pre-dates them. He's not a Titan, or we'd have known all about it when Zeus was crowing about his victories and how puissant, powerful, and mighty he was.

And uncharacteristically, The Thunderer never tried to throw his prodigious weight around in order to impress, intimidate, co-erce, or otherwise influence Pan. Which suggests that Zeus was actually a bit wary around him. Not like Zeus, is it? He didn't usually like it at all if one little detail didn't go his way, or to be denied even the smallest thing that his toddler sized social skills couldn't get him. And he never once challenged Pan.

So the things that were Pans, were never even considered as part of the the Prize of the Olympians after Zeus threw down the Titans. And Pan wasn't a Titan, so he must have pre-dated the Titans, or arrived with them.

The undisputable place that this most ancient of Gods still has very much to say for himself, is in our languages. Pan is one of those words that hasn't changed in it's meaning since day one. Not in any of the languages that draw from the ancient Greek, nor in any of the ages since, has it meant anything other than "All encompassing". And it can never mean anything else. And that is an extremely rare thing for a word. And this hints at the true potency of Pan. Pan means "everything" there is. Everything is contained within what is "Pan". And that is a very powerful Godform to be knocking about for so long, unchanged without having any subsequent Religion or Society co-opt or subvert it to a cause.

Pan equates to all those messianic Sun Heros, as the unifier as well. Because he is the one, the unbroken whole, there can be no division or separate otherness that is not in the All. Or of Pan. He has been partly syncretised into a number of other subsequent Deities as well. Mostly associated with the Mystery Cults. Which utilises his role as opener. The Dionysiac mysteries borrow from Pan. The Orphic mysteries too. Orpheus was ripped apart by the Wild Maenads who follow Dionysis. And maddened by drugs and wine, them crazy beeatches were always on the hunt for Manflesh. They couldn't get a rise out of poor Orpheus, who was still pining over Euridice. *Yawns* So they tore him up and ate him instead. Only his head was preserved alive for posterity. I think Bono owns it now. Keeps it in a burlap sack. In the Shed.

Another sign of Pan is in the amount of words that are associated with him. Go and look in a good etymological dictionary. There must be . . oh, dozens?

Pan over the ages, has been optimised, utilised, and generally well used by those who have had his services.

His traditional "God of . . . " that he should put on his FB status is that of Shepherds, and their Flocks. I think it's quite telling that he is God of "Their Flocks" also. Why not just be the "God of the Shepherds"? Then the Shepherds can look to their own flocks. I think that this is an allegory, and that Pan as God of the Shepherds (The Mystery Cults and Godforms) and their flocks (Those who follow as Initiates) Otherwise, why has he been so universally and culturally kept on, as it were? Even Christianity wasn't above grabbing the Good Shepherd / Flock thing as soon as it was expedient.

But that kinda means that by using the symbolism of Pan's office, Jesus was submitting to Pan. And Pan franchised the Flock thing out to him, with the titles. And went back to his wild places for a bit of a break. (Apart from servicing Witches in the Groves at night with his Icy Devil's phallus, that is) Enter, Torquemada, a REAL Devil of a man.

Aleister Crowley understood the vastness and potential in Pan, and had quite a dynamic relationship with the Cloven Hoofed Hedge Hopper. His Hymn to Pan was rather universally adopted as an incantation, (Despite being every bit as awful as the rest of his poetry)When he helped Gardner formulate the structure of Wicca, He was most insistent that Gardner keep Pan on in some form, for he must see (Crowley told him) that Pan has always been "The God of the Witches". (He was a proper Troll, was Crowley. He's still Trolling his own followers today) Gardner was pretty quick to try and keep a distance from Crowley at the earliest opportunity (Funny how they all do that) but it was too late for that!In his fervour for a Religion of Witchcraft, he put himself in a pretty vulnerable position by trusting Crowley not to balls it up for whatever reasons. But it seems to be catching on now as the fastest growing religion of witchcraft in. . . .well, the US for sure. Maybe the World.

Patricia Crowther was also connected with Crowley at this time, but being a woman, she was probably pointedly ignored on matters of . . . .who knows, because he wasn't listening. She had a pretty good head on her shoulders for a broom buffer. In fact her Book "Lid off the Cauldron" is the only modern Witchcraft book that I have been able to read without accompanying hoots of derision, and a big bucket of STFU.

But for me, (Apart from Crowley) the most accessible and relevant modern treatise on Pan is Dion Fortunes fictional "The Goat Foot God". She was considered a real heavyweight by contemporaries including Crowley, both of whom were GD Initiates. She perfectly melded quabala and classical western tradition, with an intuitive thoroughness that laid out a lot of groundwork for pretty much all of today's neo groups, eclectics, Hermeticists, and Wiccans (And/or any other Wicca associated / franchised Witchcraft based syncretic Matriarchal Moon Cults etc)

Quietly relegated for much of the modern age as a Nature spirit, Pan has still managed to remain a a Powerful archetype in today's World. Peter Pan, Mr Tumnus, Bloody awful raucus Celtic Panpipe music, and last but not least, The Fear, and the Hoof and Horn and Horror of "Pan, the God of the Witches" (still can't get over that) was along with other bits of stolen cultural archetypes considered scary ass demonic based evil hellbound fiery or otherwise spooky, by simple early Christian Papists, was cobbled together in the most spurious and plagiarised hokey hoofened hornbrowed Pitchfork wielding fallen Angel of the Lord, who shall be the Great Deceiver on Earth, Prince of Lies, Adversary, Antichrist, and all in one Lord of Hellfire, *A big hand everyone* heeeere's Satan! Just a minute, (we say) I recognise those Cloven hooves, and that long wispy beard, and the Ram's horns! And *sniff* You smell kinda funny, Goat Boy . . . .

Wow, very impressive Serp. I've always had an interest in Pan, but have never taken the time to do the research you have so carefully compiled. It makes me respect Pan a lot more to learn these things.

I doubt that the point is to think (or give thought) because thinking about this particular subject won't help you through the woods if you're lost in them... but I could be wrong

::edit::I'd be really surprised if this was supposed to be more than Serpentium's personal experience and thoughts about Pan which were learned (mostly) in the experience and (narrowly) from research done.

It is someones interpretation and perspective which gives one pause for thought and contemplation. Indeed this is Serps experiences or thoughts, but by posting openly here, he has offered it up for others to take in and even should they choose, to mull over and maybe even discuss with him should they want to and he being willing. Its a spiritual journey that Serp has taken us on and I am impressed with his interpretation and literal ability.

If I was to get lost in the woods, have no fear for me in that respect. I simply call upon my bushcraft skills to get me through, no worries there.

Logged

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup